Hyderabad, April 12: After a long delay, the 11.46 km PV Narasimha Rao Elevated Expressway, the longest in the country, opened to public last year but the works on three sets of intermediate ramps at different stretches of the elevated corridor are still nowhere near completion, thanks to the lack of coordination among various government departments.
The flyover from the Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital to the Aramghar Junction has been built to provide express connectivity to the International Airport at Shamshabad. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has taken up three sets of ramps at important junctions to help motorists enter and exit the corridor.
The up and down ramps – at Laxminagar, Shivarampally/Upperpally and Aramgarh – were scheduled for completion by March 2010 but not even 50 percent of the work has been done so far. Easily, it will take another three to four months for the HMDA to finish the work, that too, if the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) and the Central Power Distribution Company Ltd (CPDCL) cooperate and shift the structures impeding the works.
Admitting delay due to non-cooperation from the above mentioned agencies, HMDA officials told Expresso that out of the six ramps (up and down together), work on three – the up ramp at Laxminagar, down ramp at Shivarampally/Upperpally and up ramp at Aramgarh is going on at a snail’s pace, while the work on the other three – down ramp at Laxminagar, up ramp at Shivarampally/Upperpally and down ramp at Aramgarh – didn’t even commence owing to nonavailability of a clear site.
Non-shifting of a religious structure by the GHMC has halted the work on the Laxminagar down ramp while the Krishna water pipeline has come in the way of the up ramp at Shivarampally/ Upperpally and down ramp at Aramgarh. Unless the structures are shifted and a clear site is given to the HMDA the works cannot progress. There has been no response from the GHMC despite requests to shift the religious structure but the HMWS&SB has invited tenders for shifting of the water pipeline. The GHMC has also to complete some culvert works.
The CPDCL, on the other hand, has failed to shift its power lines blocking the ramps works. On persistent pressure from the HMDA, the officials finally submitted a proposal to shift the lines at the cost of the HMDA.
–Agencies